


Strength above all

by BetterYouThanMe



Series: Harry Potter Drabbles [23]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Ginny and Luna are good friends, Neville is just trying to get through life, Neville is sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2018-08-30
Packaged: 2019-07-04 17:29:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15845982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BetterYouThanMe/pseuds/BetterYouThanMe
Summary: Moments in Neville's life where he overcame the odds.*I didn't use the canon scene where Neville showed his magic for the first time. And some of this might not be canon compliant. Lines were used to show giant breaks in time and three dots (…) are used to show a smaller gap in time.*





	Strength above all

Neville ran around the vast backyard a tiny spade in his grubby little hands. His grandmother brought him out to teach him how to help with the garden. She mumbled something about how he needed to be useful in case he didn't have magic. Of course, the seven-year-old didn't think about what her words truly meant, and thought he was being allowed to help because he asked.

His eyes lit up with every pretty flower he saw. Even at his young age, Neville was enamored by plants. They didn't work like he did and it fascinated him.

"Come sit down, child!" Augusta barked at her grandson.

He silently obeyed and knelt by the older woman. Silence fell over them as Augusta worked ignoring the fact that she was supposed to be teaching Neville. After several moments of curiously watching his grandmother, Neville saw something flutter by in his peripheral. It was a monarch butterfly and the pretty insect caught his attention and he bounded after it. Augusta was none the wiser considering she had already forgotten the poor boy's presence.

As he ran after the bug a rock hit his foot and Neville found himself slowly falling towards the ground. The patch of Gladiolus flowers that his grandmother cared so much about in his line of fire. Suddenly, Neville stopped falling and a gust of air that wasn't naturally produced pushed him onto his feet.

Happy that he didn't squish the beautiful flowers he skipped back over to where his grandmother was with the gardening equipment. He picked up a pair of the smaller trimmers and walked back over careful of where he was walking. Neville plucked one of the flowers from the back of the bunch.

"Grandmother!" He squealed happily, "I picked this for you."

"Why on earth did you ruin one of my flower beds?" She questioned angrily standing up to take the trimmers from the young boy.

"Because I just did magic for the first time," The smile on his face was the biggest one to date.

"What have I told you about lying?" She tutted.

"Not too?" The child tilted his head in confusion, "I'm not lying though."

"Leave," She hissed through her teeth "Go sit in your room and think about what you've done."

Neville sulked back into the house but before going up to his room he grabbed a tall glass and filled it with water. He sat it on the small breakfast table in the kitchen and carefully placed the Gladiolus in the water.

…

Later that evening he sat at the breakfast bar while waiting for dinner to finish. His grandmother cooked in silence not bothering to entertain the child. Many people would think Augusta would have servants to do her cooking for her but the old woman liked control over all things in her life. Neville wished someone else was around. Maybe they would at least pay attention to him.

The silence grew louder if that was even possible as Neville watched his grandmother. She finally turned to get something from the pantry and noticed the flower by Neville.

"What did I tell you about the flower?"

"You said nothing about me putting it in here," Neville pouted.

Augusta stomped over to him and her footsteps caused the glass to shake. Neville watched in horror as the flower slowly toppled over. His instincts took over as his hand flew out but his fingers didn't touch the glass, his magic did. Smugly he set everything back on the table and beamed up at his grandmother.

She huffed and went back to what she was doing. Neville heard her mumble something about him not being useless anymore.

* * *

The entire year he had been told he shouldn't have been sorted into Gryffindor. He wasn't sure how he survived the year. His classmates tried to make him feel included but he often watched from the sidelines of many events.

And now Harry, Ron, and Hermione wouldn't talk to him since he tried to stop them. But he made it worse by alerting a professor the moment he could. What Neville didn't know is that his actions ended up saving Harry. That and the fact that the trio wasn't really mad at him. They just hadn't had time to talk to him.

Neville moped as he watched Slytherin win the house cup. Until Dumbledore interrupted the feast. He couldn't believe it when Dumbledore started handing out points to the golden trio. Gryffindors around him clutched the table with a rapt attention on their headmaster.

Hermione whispered something that Neville didn't quite catch but he did hear "tie" and "Slytherin". They all sat waiting for what their eccentric headmaster would do next.

"And finally, it takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to your enemies, but a great deal more to stand up to your friends. I award ten points to Neville Longbottom."

Neville sat frozen as people began to push and prod him. They had won the house cup after losing to Slytherin not even ten minutes ago. Everyone was praising him on an event they didn't know anything about. And the trio was a part of the group of people talking to him.

But at least now people wanted to talk to him. He won them the house cup and they might forget that over the years but he never would. The boy that  _shouldn't_  have been sorted into Gryffindor won the house cup.

* * *

During his fifth year at Hogwarts, he found himself in a trio of his own. The year before it had just been him and Ginny but they picked up Luna somewhere along the way. He found himself sitting up with them at odd hours of the day talking about whatever came to mind. And with Luna that was a wide range of strange things. But Neville didn't mind because he quite liked learning about the weird subjects that fascinated his blonde friend.

One day Neville was flipping through one of his gardening books and came across the page that talked about the Gladiolus flower. It brought up the meaning behind the plant and Neville remembered seeing patches of it around Hogwarts. He also remembered when he cut one for his grandmother many years before when he first showed magic.

The description of the plant made him think of his two friends. It represented moral integrity, faithfulness, honor, and strength.

Neville went looking for the plant deciding he wanted to try and grow one of his own. Maybe he could cultivate two for Luna and Ginny to have. He grabbed a pair of small scissors and a gardening glove just in case. Neville made sure to grab his bag before leaving the door. He'd set up pots and such when he got back.

After walking for a bit Neville came across a nice-looking patch of Gladiolus. One of the plants was wilting more than the others and he reached for that one. Setting himself the challenge to grow something from the less than nice plant.

...

Weeks passed as he spent all his free time tending to the plants. The one for Luna was in a sky-blue pot which he painted himself. He kept Ginny's looking more traditional so it would mesh well with Ginny's room back home.

He asked the girls to meet him by the lake after dinner so he could give them the flowers. He'd also written extensive care instruction which probably wasn't necessary but he did it anyway. Ginny pestered him all day about the surprise but Neville managed to keep himself from giving it away.

Ginny and Luna were already waiting for him when he made it to the lake. He quickly moved the plants behind his back as he approached them.

"This is the moment you've been waiting for," Neville presented the perfect looking flowers. They had managed to survive despite his wilted pickings.

"Oh, Neville," Luna said airily, "They're beautiful."

Luna immediately reached for the blue one as if automatically knowing it was hers. Ginny was close behind the blonde reaching for her own pot. Neville smiled at his two friends while they inspected the flowers and lists.

"So, this is what you've been doing every day," Ginny laughed.

"Yeah," Old Neville would have been shy about it, but around Luna and Ginny, he didn't feel shy. "I wanted to get you guys something for sticking with me."

* * *

Neville brandished the sword of Gryffindor proudly as Nagini's dead body laid at his feet. His chest heaved with every breath he took. He could hear murmurs from his classmates about how they didn't think he could've killed the snake.

But once again Neville proved them wrong. He thought after all this time they'd finally see him as something more than a clumsy, forgetful, should be Hufflepuff. He proved his grandmother wrong when he showed magic, his classmates when he won the house cup, when he made friends with Ginny and Luna, and just now when he killed the last Horcrux.

The odds were always against him but somehow Neville always managed to outsmart them. Made people rethink their stance on his housing. Because if he wasn't meant to be Gryffindor than how did he get the sword?

No, Neville was as true of a Gryffindor as Harry Potter. And he ultimately showed them all that. When all of this was over they would finally see who Neville truly was. That despite how much he was beaten down he made it out alive.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on my Fanfiction.net page  
> https://www.fanfiction.net/u/5665438/BetterYouThanMe


End file.
